A study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease has found that drinking just two glasses of antioxidant-rich apple juice a day can delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s affects around 700,000 older people in Britain and is the most common form of dementia. Many people fear Alzheimer’s may impact them in old age, but this study shows how crucial it is for people to lead a healthy lifestyle – with a diet rich in antioxidants – to reduce their risk. Apple juice appears to reduce the amount of protein created in the brain, which can impair memory function. In the study mice fed on apple juice performed better and found their way through a maze, and the decline in performance usually associated with age was also prevented.

 

Researchers from the Centre for Cellular Neurobiology (at Massachusetts in the USA) chose apple juice for the study rather than apples because apple juice contains more vitamin C, as well as polyphenols, which are antioxidants that can help clear away toxins known to damage cells in the body. Polyphenols can also help to relax arteries and increase blood flow. The mice who received the equivalent of two glasses of apple juice a day for a month produced less beta-amyloid protein, a substance that is responsible for forming the sticky plagues in the brain that are typically found in people with Alzheimer’s.

 

More research is needed, but the findings of this study indicate that drinking two glasses of apple juice a day can not only keep the brain healthy but may also delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. The findings certainly add to the increasing body of evidence that a healthy diet is vital for protection against diseases like Alzheimer’s.

 

Fruit juices certainly appear to be an important part of a healthy diet. In addition to keeping the brain healthy, apple juice has also been linked to a reduction in asthma. A glass of cherry juice a day has been found to offer the same health benefits as eating over 20 portions of fruit and vegetables. Purple grape juice has been found to be effective against a number of diseases and pomegranate juice is said to help fight prostate cancer. Drinking cranberry juice (with no added sugar of course) is said to ease cystitis. All this adds to previous research, which has shown that drinking fruit and vegetable juices more than three times a week can dramatically reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s.

And just a short while after a study exploded the myth that eggs can increase the risk of high cholesterol and heart disease, another study released from the University of Alberta in Canada (reported in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry) has suggested that starting your day on an egg could actually help keep your blood pressure in check.

More research needs to be done, but scientists showed that eggs produce proteins that can mimic the action of powerful blood-pressure-lowering drugs, such as ace inhibitors, which are prescription-only pills taken by millions around the world. These drugs lower blood pressure by stopping the hormone angiotensin from narrowing the body’s blood vessels. This recent research shows that when eggs come into contact with stomach enzymes they can produce a protein that can act in the same way.

A British Heart Foundation study has exploded the misconception that eggs can cause heart attacks. In fact, researchers suggested that one egg a day as part of a balanced diet can not only boost health, but actually help people lose weight.

In the 1960s the average Britain ate five eggs a week, boosted by the government ‘go to work on an egg’ campaign, but during the 70s and 80s consumption fell dramatically after health minister Edwina Currie suggested that eggs were infected with salmonella and official advice suggested a three-a-week limit. In 2005 the British Heart Foundation dropped this limit and suggested that we can eat more, but in 2009 it appears that the message is still not getting through as most people still only eat two to three eggs a week.

 

The British Heart Foundation used to recommend that people limit their consumption to no more than three eggs a week because eggs contain cholesterol, which is known to increase the risk of heart disease. In 2005 it dropped this advice because studies showed that little of the cholesterol in eggs actually made its way into the blood. Many people, however, still aren’t aware that it really is safe to go to work on an egg each day, so now a paper presented to the British Nutrition Foundation has set out the definitive evidence showing there is no link between increased egg consumption and an increased risk of heart disease. The paper shows that it is not increased egg consumption but factors such as smoking, being overweight, and a lack of physical exercise that can influence blood fat and cholesterol levels and increase risk of heart disease. The only people advised against eating too many eggs are people with a condition called familial hypercholesterolaemia. (See this issue’s Star Question for nutritional help in lowering cholesterol.)